“With what?” I yelled. Frustrated that they were scheming behind my back.
“Bash wants me to hack their systems. Find the locations where the Lycans are not patrolling,” Amy said.
“Not patrolling? I don’t get it; these wolves are everywhere, all over town.”
“No, Pet, not in Sheunta. Around the world,” Lucian said, giving me a weak smile.
Everything clicked into place as I recalled the conversation Jonah and Bash had in the infirmary.
“I might have to run again,” I whispered to myself.
“We don’t know for sure,” Jackson tried to smooth things over. “It’s a contingency plan.”
Drew must had been telling the truth. Jonah was having no luck with the Kings Council and when the Summit arrived, they’d have no choice but to put me down. I couldn’t believe it.
“Mackenzie,” Amy shook my arm. “Snap out of it. Everything will be alright.”
“Alright?” I paled. “They want my head on a spike, and after yesterday, they might get it sooner than later.”
“What do you mean, Pet? I haven’t heard anything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course you haven’t. You live out in the boonies! People are afraid to go anywhere near the forest.”
“I’ve heard,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to check it out but have been busy,” he wiggled his fingers at me.
“With what? Sun bathing?” I quirked a brow at the vampire.
“Funny,” he deadpanned. “I’ve been trying to find someone that doesn’t want to be found. It’s quite the tiring task, Pet.”
“Need help?” Amy offered.
I groaned. “Please don’t get involved. Go home and be safe, I beg of you.”
“Kenzie, shut up!” Amy screamed. Her flaming, bright red hair flew everywhere as she stomped her foot. “I’m a grown woman who can make her own damn decisions. Stop trying to coddle me!”
I jolted back and swallowed my retort. Coddle—what Jonah and Bash did to me. Oh hypocrisy, how you slap me in the face at the most inopportune time.
“I don’t mean to…”
“I know,” she sighed.
There was a pregnant pause and we stood around Lucian’s living room in awkward silence.
“Well now that that’s over, care for some tea?” the vampire asked.
I chuckled. “Hell no. I’ve only been here a few days and I’m sick of it.”
“Coffee it is,” he said as he spun around and went into the kitchen.
I spent afternoon tea recapping all that happened since the moment we stepped foot onto Castle MacCoinnich—the good, the bad, and the ugly. From the weird welcoming party, to the creepy half-brother—minus recent events—to the unfortunate incident with Tinkerbell. I swore I’d never be able to watch a Peter Pan movie again without having severe PTSD flashbacks.
“Now I’ve been grounded and I’m not allowed to leave the castle,” I finished, inhaling my third cup of coffee.
“Yet here you are…” Jackson said.
“Do you expect anything less from me?”
He shook his head.
“If it’s not safe, then maybe staying in the castle isn’t such a bad idea,” he suggested.
“I can’t. It’s suffocating and I have a babysitter that goes everywhere with me. He doesn’t even like me!”
“Shocker,” Jackson muttered.
“Anyway,” I growled, shifting my attention to Lucian. “I came here for your help.”
“In what?”
I swallowed loudly, taking a large gulp of coffee before I uttered the word I had spent most of my walk trying to find an alternative.
“I need you to tell me about my mother.”
Chapter Sixteen
Their eyes widened in shock. It wasn’t surprising since I was so adamant at not knowing a thing about the people who made me, but at this point I needed to know. The town’s people might not have known who my mother was, but they knew what happened to her—I was tired of being in the dark. If Alexander wasn’t going to tell me, I’d find out on my own. All roads lead to the Fae, so I need to know if the same ones who killed my mother, are the ones trying to kill me. And worse—are they the ones who killed the Lunas?
“This might be a question better suited for Alexander, Pet,” Lucian said and put down his cup of tea.
“No,” I shook my head. “I want you to tell me, and don’t you dare lie.”
Lucian cocked his head to the side, studying me. “What brought this on, Pet?”
I shot up from my seat and began to pace. I had a million thoughts running a mile a minute and I couldn’t figure out where to start.
“I don’t understand any of this,” I threw my hands in the air as I let the verbal diarrhea run its course. “Someone wants to kill me and I can’t formulate why, much less whom. At first I thought it was because of this so-called revolution I had started but I have a gut feeling telling me otherwise. No one besides the King and his inner circle know what I’ve done. The people of Sheunta are in the dark, making the attack feel personal. Maybe because I’m the product of something that shouldn’t have happened—a mistake. The logical person would be the Queen, but it couldn’t be her. She’s so damn nice for someone who just received physical confirmation of her husband’s affair. Before you ask, I listened to her heart beat. She’s sincere. So then I revert back to the revolution because it makes no sense for them to kill the Lunas if it’s me they’re after, or was it all a distraction? The culprit had to be close to the King, it was the only way they’d know everything.”
“Culprit?” Amy whispered to Jackson who shushed her.
“And then I heard some Lunas talking on my way here. They know my birth mother was murdered and they think it’s the Fae. Is that who tried to kill me and the Lunas? How did the town’s people know to hide in their shops and homes when I was attacked by the vicious army of Tinkerbells—that I swear were more threatening than they sound,” I pointed to them as they stared at me wide eyed. “What? They were monsters, no fairy dust in sight.”
“Breathe, Kenzie,” Amy said as she inhaled and exhaled loudly, trying to get me to follow her.
“I am!” I exclaimed. “I just needed to get my thoughts out there.”
“We can tell,” Jackson said. “Have you told Bash and my brother?”
I bit my lip and shook my head. “They’ve been busy.”
“Why do you want to know about your mum?” Lucian inquired.
“She’s the beginning of this whole mess. Maybe knowing a bit about her will lead me to a clue.”
I waited as Lucian stared at me long and hard—contemplating whether to open Pandora’s box or not.
“She wasn’t Lycan.” He leaned back, running a hand across his face like this secret had been weighing him down and he was just now unloading.
“What was she?” I crossed my fingers and wished she was human.
“She was an Oracle,” he paused and grinned. “A beauty to behold—no one could take their eyes off her when she entered a room. Her voice was as gentle as a lover’s sigh, and her smile as sweet as lilies in May. She was only eighteen when she arrived to Castle Mac, and already the lot of them adored her.”
I couldn’t tear my gaze away, I was captivated in not just his description of her, but the anticipation of learning more.
“Why was she here?”
“Before her arrival, an Oracle was always in residence at Castle Mac. They aided in wars and keeping the royal family safe. Their ability to see the future and read prophecies is very valuable. Every so many years, a new Oracle takes the place of the previous one and when your mum arrived, she was the apprentice to the Oracle already there—your mum was preparing to take over as the new Oracle for the royal family.”
“If she was so amazing, why did she have an affair with Alexander?”
Lucian frowned. “We can’t choose who we fall in love with, Pet. If we could, life would be much easier.” For a second, it seemed like he was talking from
experience. Did Lucian have a thing for my bio-mother?
“So what happened?” Amy asked. “Why was she killed?”
“I don’t know for sure. The rumors range from the Queen killing her, to her own family doing the deed. What I know is that Alexander brought her to me when he realized she was no longer safe in Sheunta. He begged me to take her across the pond and take care of her. It wasn’t until we arrived to New York that she told me she was pregnant.”
“She knew…” I whispered.
Lucian nodded. “Your mum knew more than she led on—as an Oracle, she was the keeper of many secrets. She feared someone. She never told me who, but her only concern was you, Pet. She didn’t want you to be part of this world.”
I didn’t understand. “But Alexander is a Lycan, no matter what I would have been a wolf. I never stood a chance.”
“She knew that. Which brings me full circle to whom I’ve been searching for these past few days,” Lucian said. “Cosima—the witch that aided in suppressing your wolf.”
“Wait, what?” Jackson interrupted. “Is that even possible?”
Lucian went quiet, his eyes never leaving mine. I wanted to know what he was thinking, what secrets he kept from me. This whole time he knew—he knew exactly who I was, who I’d always been and he never said a thing. I remembered when I first met the vampire, he told me that helping me run away to Los Angeles was paying off a debt—now I understood.
“Answer him,” I demanded.
“Yes—at least we thought it was but it only suppressed your wolf for a few years. I’ve been looking for the witch who helped us concoct the potion those twenty four years ago.”
“And?” I prompted.
“I’ve been unsuccessful in finding her. She has a shop in Sheunta Village, I was going to pay her a visit when you stopped by.”
I snorted. “How convenient.”
“Very,” the vampire smirked.
“Will you at least tell me her name?”
His smirk faded. He knew damn well who I was talking about.
“Her name was Adaline.”
Adaline. That was such a lovely name; I couldn’t stop repeating it in my head. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman—or so I’m told.
“You said Adaline’s family was rumored to have killed her. Was it because of the affair?”
“Yes,” Lucian answered quickly.
“Shit,” Jackson muttered as he covered his mouth. “I completely forgot.”
“Forgot what?” I looked between the two of them.
“Oracles,” Lucian started, “are the purest of species. Their sole purpose is to pass on wisdom and keep the world in order. They don’t fall in love—ever—making a sacred vow of celibacy. If broken, they are ostracized from their sisters and cast out into the human world.”
“So they had motive the minute she gave up her goodies,” I nodded in understanding.
“I don’t know how accurate that is, Pet,” he said. “Once Adaline was sent away, the Sisters of the Sight—”
“The what?” I interrupted.
“The Oracles are known as the Sisters of the Sight. When I say her family, they are who I mean. When Adaline was sent away, a small war erupted between the Sisters and the MacCoinnich’s. Since then, they’ve never had an Oracle at Castle Mac ever again.”
Talk about Romeo and Juliet…Alexander and Adaline were a modern day version.
“Where’s the witch? Do you think she ratted you out and got Adaline killed?” I asked.
Lucian scratched his chin as if he could even grow a beard. “I honestly don’t know, Pet. She owns an Apothecary in town, would you like to accompany me?”
“Duh.”
****
Instead of walking into town, Lucian was nice enough to drive to the borders of Sheunta—my relief was evident. The hike to Lucian’s cottage was killer on the thighs. Once we passed the residential area, I pulled my hood over my head and covered the top half of my face—enough that I could still see but others wouldn’t notice my gray eyes.
The store was in the center of Sheunta—a brick mortar building, its borders painted a dark forest green. The window on either side of the black painted door, displayed different potions and elixirs for god knows what. This looked like something out of a fairy tale.
“What is this?” I asked as I looked up to the second floor that appeared to be an apartment.
“Cosima’s Apothecary for your everyday needs,” Lucian said. “Everything to cure the common cold to troll fungus—she’s got it. You can also commission work, like I did, but not many people know that.”
He stepped up the three brick steps and pushed open the door. A bell rang overhead as we entered the shop. I was assaulted by an abundance of aromas that made me sneeze. My sensitive muzzle was not happy with me.
“God bless you,” Lucian chuckled and I rolled my eyes.
“You think you’re so funny,” I deadpanned and roamed the pharmacy-like store. I picked up a jar from one of the shelves that contained a purple liquid with six eyeballs floating around. They flickered back and forth, blinking. “Oh, gross!”
“Don’t touch anything, Pet.”
“What the hell is this place?” I wiped my hands on my jeans as if they were tainted. “Those things do not cure the common cold, my friend.”
“I added the troll fungus for a reason.” Lucian tapped a bell on the front desk counter. It dinged twice. “We don’t get struck by human illnesses as much as supernatural ones. Witches like Cosima, help with remedies that we aren’t able to get at our local Walgreens.”
“I guess…” I murmured as I squatted in front of a container filled to the brim with Wolfsbane. The smell was unforgettable and reminded me of the Skinwalker I killed to save Jackson—the thing that pretended to be Caleb.
“Can I help you?” a small voice cleared her throat. I whirled around to see a young girl coming down the winding, metal stairs. She had reddish-brown hair that was in two braids on either side of her head. Big doe eyes watched us as she held on to the railing for dear life.
“Yes,” Lucian smiled brightly, his fangs peeking out. “I was looking for Cosima. Is she in, dear?”
“Uh…no she’s not,” the girl stuttered.
“Do you know when she’ll be back?” I approached and tried to seem friendlier than the vampire baring his teeth. Did he really think that would make her comfortable?
Her eyes bounced from Lucian to me like a tennis match. She was scared.
“N-no, she’s been away all summer,” she said and it dawned on me. The girl didn’t have a Scottish accent.
“Are you American?” I asked. Almost giddy that I wasn’t alone in this foreign country.
“Why are you here?” Lucian interjected. “Are you running the shop?”
“Cosima is my mother, and yes, I’m from the U.S.” She seemed to have realized something and shook her head. “Why are you asking all these questions, who are you?” she grilled Lucian.
He grinned. “I’m a friend of your mums. Where has she gone?”
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “I came back from school because I hadn’t heard from her in weeks, but the store was locked up and empty.”
Lucian and I froze and looked to one another. That did not sound good.
“Have you contacted the Kings Council?” Lucian asked.
She shook her head. “My mom does that sometimes. She’s flakey. I’m sure she’ll show up sooner or later,” she shrugged.
The vampires face hardened. “When was the last time you spoke to your mum?”
“Like four weeks ago,” she responded as she counted on her fingers. “Yeah, about a month ago.”
“Damn it!” Lucian exclaimed as he slammed his fist on the counter, making the girl and I jump.
“Easy there, Luce,” I patted him on the back. “Lower that blood pressure.”
He growled. He actually growled like a feral animal—I’d never even heard Roman sound that pissed.
“I need t
o see the upstairs,” he demanded as he approached the girl on the stairs.
Her doe eyes widened even more as she raised her hands in protest. “Whoa! You can’t come up here, this is my private residence!”
“Move,” he flicked her to the side like she was a piece of lint on his shoulder.
“Lucian! What the hell man!” I rushed over to stop the girl from falling over. “I’m sure he has a very good explanation for this,” I gave her a tight smile and hurried behind him; ignoring the girl’s protests for us to stop.
I ran up the winding staircase that led to a loft-style apartment. It was an open space, the living room, the bedroom and kitchen all in one spot with a door that I was sure led to the bathroom. Bookcases lined the walls, filled to the brim. I scanned the spines and they were all on witchcraft.
“Wicked,” I mused.
“Get out, now!” she demanded. “Do not make me hurt you.”
Lucian chuckled. “What are you, seventeen?” he dismissed her as he searched for something in the apartment. “You’re a baby witch. You haven’t even gone to the academy.”
“I’m eighteen! And I can do a lot more than you’d think!” she yelled. The girl flicked her wrist and electricity sparked from her finger tips.
“Holy shit,” I stumbled backwards. “Uh…Lucian…” I called out, not taking my eyes off the witch.
“Deary, put those things away,” Lucian waved her off. “We’re here to help.”
“What he said,” I jabbed my thumb at the vampire. “No need for the hocus pocus.”
“Your mum is not a flake, she’s been kidnapped.”
The spark fizzled out and the girl dropped her hand. I exhaled and relaxed once I wasn’t in danger of getting electrocuted.
“For fuck sake, Luce, you couldn’t have said that earlier,” I clutched my chest.
“Oh hush, Pet, she wouldn’t had done much damage—I think,” he shrugged. “But come here,” he motioned for us to go over to the bookshelf. Lucian pulled out a thick, leather bound book and opened it—the pages had been ripped out.
“So?” I quirked a brow.
He showed me the title on the front that read Transformation and Transfiguration: A Spell Book on Metamorphosis.
ALPHA (Mackenzie Grey #3) Page 13